Fair Oaks Ranch settles suit with owner of site where “The Reserve” proposed

Signs opposing the annexation of 345 acres along Ammann Road in Kendall County popped up in Fair Oaks Ranch in 2014 after a grassroots group formed against a development agreement signed by the city and would-be developer that called for up to 635 homes to be built on those 345 acres. The annexation was rejected. The city sued the developer and the developer filed a counter-claim; the two sides recently reached a settlement city officials call “win-win.”

Photo: Zeke MacCormack /San Antonio Express-News

Fair Oaks Ranch has settled a lawsuit it filed against the owner of the parcel just outside the city where plans for a large subdivision — The Reserve at Fair Oaks Ranch — sparked a wave of local political activism in 2014.

R.W. Pfeiffer Properties, the defendant in the suit filed in March 2016, was accused of breaching the terms of a pact with the city that outlined how its 345-acre parcel off Ammann Road would be developed, including a provision for the completed subdivision to be served by city water.

The city’s lawsuit cited Pfeiffer’s opposition to its parcel being included in an expanded municipal water utility service area for which the city sought approval from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

“As a direct, proximate and foreseeable consequence of defendant’s breach, plaintiff city cannot comply with the development agreement,” said the city’s suit.

A Pfeiffer counter claim asserted that the city’s refusal in 2014 to annex its property violated the terms of the binding agreement struck in November 2013.

“Annexation was a material provision of the contractual agreement between the parties and this breach terminated any obligation on the part of the defendant to perform,” say Pfeiffer pleadings in the case filed in Bexar County district court.

Calling the negotiated resolution “a win-win” for both sides, City Manager Tobin Maples said Wednesday that it provides Pfeiffer with flexibility on what goes at the site, while clearing the way for the city to expand its water service area there.

If Pfeiffer Properties prefers not to adhere to the originally proposed high density subdivision served by city water, the settlement says it can instead build up to 85 homes — the maximum allowed there under Kendall County development guidelines — that are served by individual water wells.

“I”m happy to settle,” Russell W. Pfeiffer said this week. He declined comment on which development path he may follow.

Mayor Garry Manitzas applauded the settlement in a statement issued after the April 5 council meeting where it was authorized, saying lengthy court proceedings had been avoided.

“Each party will pay their own legal costs,” he said in a news release announcing the deal.

Trio Residential Developers of Austin, who’d led negotiations with the city on the development agreement, dropped out of the project after facing stiff public opposition, led by a newly formed grassroots group called Save Fair Oaks Ranch.

Its members decried the large subdivision proposed in the development agreement as a burden on city streets and services and a threat to the local quality of life.

The group, whose organizers included Manitzas and current Councilman Steve Hartpence, successfully lobbied in 2014 against annexation of the Pfeiffer parcel.

Campaigning as agents of change in 2015, Hartpence and Manitzas were elected to the council. In 2016, Manitzas defeated incumbent Mayor Cheryl Landman. He faces Wesley Pieper in the May 5 mayoral election.